The voting breakdown has now been confirmed after Alison Hernandez secured a third term as the police and crime commissioner for Devon and Cornwall.

The election saw a significant drop from the 2021 election in the number of people turning out to vote.

Votes from across the Devon and Cornwall police area were collated at the vote count in Plymouth’s Life Centre, with Ms Hernandez beating her rival candidates, Daniel Steel (Labour and Co-operative Party) and Steve Lodge (Liberal Democrat).

A total of 308,607 votes were placed, equivalent to 22.5 per cent of the potential electorate within the Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly constituency.

Ms Hernandez took 131, 764 votes, Mr Steel took 107,897 and Mr Lodge 64,790.

The number of votes is a steep drop compared to the 2021 election, when Ms Hernandez secured her second term in office. Then, the turnout was 494,627, or 36.1 per cent of the electorate.

Commentators at the count suggested the lack of local elections in Cornwall would likely have been a contributing factor to the low turnout, with just the PCC ballot at Cornish polling stations.

Labour’s Mr Steel secured wins in Plymouth and Exeter – cities which proved fruitful for the party in the local elections – Conservative Ms Hernandez secured Torbay, Teignbridge, West Devon, South Hams, North Devon, Torridge, Mid Devon, East Devon and the Isles of Scilly.

Cornwall was the last to declare its result, but has since announced that Ms Hernandez won 35,536 votes, with Mr Steel polling 28,290 and Mr Lodge 17,372 for the Liberal Democrats.

Of the 82,011 votes polled in Cornwall, there were 801 rejected ballot papers - with 675 being unmarked or voided for uncertainty, 119 voting for more than one candidate and seven identifying the voter.

In Devon and Cornwall, the salary set for the police and crime commissioner as of May 2022 is £88,600 per annum.

In her speech after the win, Ms Hernandez said she was “really delighted” that the region’s voters had backed her.

“I think it shows that when you focus on the things that are the people’s priority, people will come out and support you and say they’re on your side,” she said.

“Together, with taxpaying residents, we have done things as a team in Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

“We’ve worked together to take drugs off our streets through better intelligence, we have recruited a record number of police, we’ve re-opened police stations, something which people expect, and we’ve taken dangerous drivers off the roads, although we still have a big job there.

“And we have got prisoners building homes for the homeless.”